Meininger Landtag
The Meiningen Landtag was the parliament of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen and from November 1918 of the Free State of Saxony-Meiningen .
Prehistory: The estates of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen
Land estates had already existed in the county of Henneberg . After the founding of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen, Duke Bernhard I convened the first Meiningen state parliament on May 22, 1684. The Henneberg and Wettin estates of the Salzungen Office met here for the first time to pay homage to the duke and, separately according to estates, to negotiate the propositions presented to them. The Meininger Oberland and the Office Römhild were not represented in the state estates.
The Landtag 1824
Article 13 of the German Federal Act obliged the states of the German Confederation to enact “land-based constitutions”. Duke Bernhard II issued a constitution on September 4, 1824 without the participation of the estates (the Basic Law on the landscape constitution of the Duchy of Saxony-Coburg-Meiningen ), in which a parliament was also regulated. The 21 members of the state parliament were elected (or appointed: a member of each estate was appointed by the duke) and formed the "landscape", separated according to the classes of citizens, farmers and manor owners. The manor appointed by the duke was the land marshal and president of the state parliament .
The right to vote was linked to reaching the age of 25, membership of the Christian religion, an innocent repute and not being involved in a self-inflicted bankruptcy . State and court officials had the right to vote.
Section 20 of the constitution listed the manors whose possession led to a right to vote in the curia of manor owners.
Citizens were elected in six one-person constituencies. One member each was elected in the cities of Meiningen , Salzungen , Wasungen , Römhild , Sonneberg and Schalkau . The holders of civil rights were entitled to vote ; those citizens who had a taxed property or business and an annual income of at least 300 guilders were eligible to vote.
The farmers were elected in three two-person constituencies. The election was made indirectly . Each village with up to fifty houses elected one, larger villages two electors . Farmers with six acres or one house were eligible to vote. The electors determined the two MPs in the constituency.
The deputies were elected for six years. Deputies were elected in the event of early departure. The first state parliament was convened on December 17, 1824.
The state parliament had competencies in financial control and budgeting in relation to the landscape treasury and the right to approve or refuse taxes. With regard to legislation, he only had the right to advise.
Emergence
In 1826 the Duchy of Saxony-Hildburghausen merged into the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen, which required a union of the two estates (the estates of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen and the estates of the Duchy of Saxony-Hildburghausen ). The Meiningen Landtag was created in accordance with the Basic Law of the Landscaping Constitution of the Duchy of Saxony-Meiningen on August 23, 1829 with its seat in the state capital Meiningen and held its first session in 1830.
composition
The state parliament was composed of 24 members, headed by a land marshal. The right to vote was based on the constitution of 1824 and only took into account the new shape of the country.
The eight manor owners were elected in two constituencies in Meiningen and Saalfeld . The four districts ( Hildburghausen , Meiningen , Saalfeld and Sonneberg ) formed the four constituencies of the eight citizens to be elected and eight farmers to be elected. The election took place indirectly through electors.
The legislative period of the state parliament was six years. From 1830 to 1923 there were a total of 18 electoral terms.
Another story
Duchy
In 1832 the Meininger Landtag moved into the newly built landscape building on Meininger Markt, right next to the town hall. According to a new law of June 25, 1853, the state parliament consisted of eight electors from each city and eight rural residents, six elected members of large business enterprises and two deputies appointed by the respective ruling duke. On April 25, 1868, Duke George II passed new rules of procedure to the state parliament by law, which regulated the procedure of the state parliament sessions, the participation of the state ministry in the decisions and the rights of the state parliament president and the members of parliament. This remained valid until 1923. In accordance with these rules of procedure, two judicial trainees were appointed at intervals of six to three months to keep the state assembly's minutes as well as secretary and archival work by the Meiningen State Ministry, Justice Department. A law of April 24, 1873 regulates the new composition of the state parliament, which from then on consisted of 16 representatives from cities and municipalities and four from each of the most highly taxed landowners and personal taxpayers.
In 1874, the great city fire also destroyed the landscape building. Until the completion of the new parliament building, the state parliament temporarily moved to the hall of the rifle house , where 177 meetings were held in six years. The first public meeting in the newly built state parliament building on Eleonorenstrasse took place on November 15, 1880. In 1909 the 17th Landtag was elected, the election of the 18th Landtag, which was to take place in 1915, was initially suspended because of the First World War. Shortly before the end of the First World War, the last session of the state parliament took place in September 1918 and was then postponed indefinitely.
free State
As a result of the November Revolution, the ruling Duke Bernhard III thanked on November 10, 1918 . from. On November 12, 1918, Eduard Fritze , President of the Landtag , convened the Landtag for the 234th session of the electoral term to discuss the future of the Duchy. On the same evening, the Free State of Saxony-Meiningen was proclaimed and the new social-liberal government appointed. The first state minister was the secret councilor Ludwig Freiherr von Türcke , along with the civil servants Karl Marr (deputy) and Ottomar Benz as well as four honorary councilors from the ranks of the state parliament members.
On November 15, 1918, the Meininger Landtag adapted the Basic Law of 1829 to the new conditions. The parliament passed further new state laws and legislative changes in December 1918. Among other things, the three-class voting rights were no longer available. On March 9, 1919 the election of the 18th state parliament took place, which met for the first time on April 7, 1919. Eduard Wehder became the new president of the state parliament . After long controversial debates about joining the Free State either to Bavaria or to the new state of Thuringia , the Meiningen Landtag decided on December 12, 1919, as the last of the founding states to join Thuringia. After the formation of the state of Thuringia on May 1, 1920, the state parliament changed into a regional representation on April 1, 1921, following a transitional law passed on December 9, 1920. The last meeting finally took place on March 24, 1923 in the state parliament building.
(with the distribution of seats from 1919 to 1923)
Landtag President
- Dietrich von Stein (from 1824)
literature
- Norbert Moczarski: The last state parliament of Saxony-Meiningen and the subsequent regional representation in the years 1919–1923. In: Harald Mitteldorf (Red.): The forgotten parliaments. State parliaments and regional representations in the Thuringian states and territories 1919 to 1923. (= series of publications on the history of parliamentarism in Thuringia. Vol. 19). Hain-Verlag, Rudolstadt et al. 2002, ISBN 3-89807-038-7 , pp. 81-119.
- Kuratorium Kulturstadt Meiningen (Ed.): Meiningen. Lexicon on city history. Bielsteinverlag, Meiningen 2008, ISBN 978-3-9809504-4-2 .
Web links
- Constitution of 1824 (PDF; 15.1 MB)
- Constitution of 1829, the regulations on the state parliament can be found in Title VI., §§ 49 ff. P. 841.
